Teaching the Graphic NovelEditor(s): Stephen E. Tabachnick
Pages: viii & 353 pp.
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781603290616
"Professors and teachers thinking of introducing graphic narratives in their courses, or of creating a dedicated class for this popular genre, will do well to consult it and profit from the generous advice of its contributors."

Vittorio Frigerio, Belphegor

"This excellent collection lays out an impressive series of methods and techniques for teaching graphic novels. It comes at just the right moment, as the graphic novel has matured into an influential art form that has made a place for itself on the contemporary cultural scene."

M. Thomas Inge, Randolph-Macon College

The casebound edition of this title is out of print.

Graphic novels are now appearing in a great variety of courses: composition, literature, drama, popular culture, travel, art, translation. The thirty-four essays in this volume explore issues that the new art form has posed for teachers at the university level. Among the subjects addressed are

terminology (graphic narrative vs. sequential art, comics vs. comix)

the three outstanding comics-producing cultures today: the American, the Japanese (manga), and the Franco-Belgian (the bande dessinée)

the differences between the techniques of graphic narrative and prose narrative,and between the reading patterns for each

the connections between the graphic novel and film

the lives of the new genre’s practitioners (e.g., Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar)

women’s contributions to the field (e.g., Lynda Barry)

how the graphic novel has been used to probe difficult moments in history (the Holocaust, 9/11), deal with social and racial injustice, and voice political satire

postmodernism in the graphic novel (e.g., in the work of Chris Ware)

how the American superhero developed in the Depression and World War II

comix and the 1960s counterculture

the challenges of teaching graphic novels that contain violence and sexual content

The volume concludes with a selected bibliography of the graphic novel and sequential art.